Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in the capital's former Foreign Legation Quarter. English menu with photos, although no
English sign and not much English spoken.
BĚIJĪNG DÀDǑNG ROAST
DUCK RESTAURANT$$$
|PEKING DUCK
( Běijīng Dàdǒng Kǎoyādiàn; 8522 1111; 88 Jinbao Jie, 5th fl, Jinbaohui Shopping Centre, 5 roast duck ¥238;
11am-10pm; Dengshikou)
Ultramodern Dàdǒng sells itself on being the only restaurant that
serves Běijīng roast duck with all the flavour of the classic imperial dish, but none of the
fat - the leanest roast duck in the capital. For some it's hideously overpriced and far from
authentic. For others it's the best roast duck restaurant in China. There are four branches:
this one, by the Regent hotel, another housed in part of the former Imperial Granaries and
two further east in Cháoyáng District. All are equally classy establishments.
DŌNGHUÁMÉN NIGHT MARKET $
( Dōnghuámén Yèshì; Dong'anmen Dajie, snacks ¥5-15; 4-10pm;
;
Wangfujing)
A sight in itself,
the bustling night market near Wangfujing Dajie is a veritable food zoo: lamb, beef and
chicken skewers, corn on the cob, smelly
dòufu
(tofu), cicadas, grasshoppers, kidneys,
quail eggs, snake, squid, fruit, porridge, fried pancakes, strawberry kebabs, bananas, Inner
Mongolian cheese, stuffed eggplants, chicken hearts, pita bread stuffed with meat,
shrimps - and that's just the start. It's not a very authentic Běijīng experience, but the
vendors take great glee in persuading foreigners to try such delicacies as scorpion on a
stick. Expect to pay ¥5 for a lamb skewer, far more than you would pay for the same
snack from a
hútòng
vendor. More exotic skewers cost up to ¥50. Noodles or savoury pan-
cakes
(jiānbing)
will set you back about ¥10. Prices are all marked and in English.
|STREET FOOD
CYCLE-RICKSHAW PANCAKES
One of the tastiest street-food snacks to be found in Běijīng is the
jiānbing
, a savoury pancake sprinkled with
chives and spring onion and rubbed in chilli sauce before being wrapped around a crunchy slice of fried dough.
They're either sold from a hole-in-the-wall stall, or simply off the back of a cycle rickshaw. Ordering is easy, as
the vendor generally only sells one type; all you have to decide is whether you want chilli (
yào làjiāo
) or not (
bú yào làjiāo
), and then hand over your ¥4.
